万物简史 第623期:神秘的两足动物(1)

THE MYSTERIOUS BIPED

第二十八章神秘的两足动物

Just before Christmas 1887, a young Dutch doctor with an un-Dutch name, Marie Eugene Francois Thomas Dubois, arrived in Sumatra, in the Dutch East Indies, with the intention of finding the earliest human remains¹ on Earth.

就在1887年圣诞节前，一位有着非荷兰名字的年轻荷兰医生马里·尤金·弗朗索瓦·托马斯·杜布瓦来到荷属东印度群岛的苏门答腊岛，他此行的目的是为了寻找地球上最早的人类的遗骨。（注：尽管是荷兰人，杜布瓦出生于比利时法语区边终地带的小镇埃吉斯顿。）

Several things were extraordinary about this. To begin with, no one had ever gone looking for ancient human bones before. Everything that had been found to this point had been found accidentally, and nothing in Dubois's background suggested that he was the ideal candidate to make the process intentional².

他的这一举动有几点非同寻常之处。首先，在此之前，从未有人专门去寻找过古人类遗骸。迄今为止所发现的一切都纯属偶然，而杜布瓦的背景决定了他似乎也不是使这一过程变得具有全球性影响的理想人选。

He was an anatomist by training with no background in paleontology. Nor was there any special reason to suppose that the East Indies would hold early human remains. Logic³ dictated⁴ that if ancient people were to be found at all, it would be on a large and long-populated landmass, not in the comparative fastness of an archipelago. Dubois was driven to the East Indies on nothing stronger than a hunch⁵, the availability of employment, and the knowledge that Sumatra was full of caves, the environment in which most of the important hominid fossils had so far been found. What is most extraordinary in all this—nearly miraculous⁶, really—is that he found what he was looking for.

他是一个训练有索的解剖学家，对于古生物学却是一个门外汉。也没有任何特别的理由认为荷属东印度群岛存在早期人类的化石。从逻辑上说，若要发现古代人类的遗迹，应该到地域辽阔，很久以前就有人类活动的大陆，而不是空间相对狭小的群岛。驱使杜布瓦来到东印度群岛的目的，一是他的直觉，一是这里可以找到工作，还有就是苏门答腊有许多洞穴，当时为止的大多数重要的人科动物化石都是在这样的环境里发现的。然而，最令人想不到的是他居然找到了他要寻找的东西。这简直是个奇迹。v

1 remains   

n.剩余物，残留物；遗体，遗迹

参考例句：

• He ate the remains of food hungrily.他狼吞虎咽地吃剩余的食物。
• The remains of the meal were fed to the dog.残羹剩饭喂狗了。

2 intentional   

adj.故意的，有意（识）的

参考例句：

• Let me assure you that it was not intentional.我向你保证那不是故意的。
• His insult was intentional.他的侮辱是有意的。

3 logic   

n.逻辑(学)；逻辑性

参考例句：

• What sort of logic is that?这是什么逻辑？
• I don't follow the logic of your argument.我不明白你的论点逻辑性何在。

4 dictated   

v.大声讲或读( dictate的过去式和过去分词 )；口授；支配；摆布

参考例句：

• He dictated a letter to his secretary. 他向秘书口授信稿。
• No person of a strong character likes to be dictated to. 没有一个个性强的人愿受人使唤。 来自《简明英汉词典》

5 hunch   

n.预感，直觉

参考例句：

• I have a hunch that he didn't really want to go.我有这么一种感觉，他并不真正想去。
• I had a hunch that Susan and I would work well together.我有预感和苏珊共事会很融洽。

6 miraculous   

adj.像奇迹一样的，不可思议的

参考例句：

• The wounded man made a miraculous recovery.伤员奇迹般地痊愈了。
• They won a miraculous victory over much stronger enemy.他们战胜了远比自己强大的敌人，赢得了非凡的胜利。